Are you unfamiliar with the concept of elasticity of demand? If they raise the price high enough, then it becomes feasible for me to start a private club wherein 20 people contribute to the purchase of a CD and we all get a backup copy. The RIAA litigation model can do nothing against this form of sharing, and if everyone did it, then net profits would go down, not up. Do you seriously expect that if the RIAA raised the minimum price of a CD to $100, that they would make MORE money? I believe they are already well past the optimum price point for their product, and that _lowering_ the price to under $10 would in fact improve their net income. How many songs has Apple sold at this (lower) price point?
One Swiss complainant was quoted as saying, "It is frustrating... how are we going to keep our fair Swiss maidens satisfied once they see the enormous schlongs on these German beastie-men and start comparing them to our tiny swiss sausages?"
From Wikipedia: "The Ninth Circuit recently held that Noerr-Pennington also protects against RICO Act claims when a defendant has sent thousands of demand letters threatening suit. Sosa v. DirectTV, Inc., 437 F.3d 923, 935 (9th Cir. 2006)" Yep, that sounds like the RIAA alright! It also makes sense that the plaintiff would invoke RICO against the RIAA. But I still don't see how this justifies sealing the file. The whole point of a class-action is to give everyone who has been harmed the option of joining in. That's just a little difficult to do when the file is sealed! Ray, is it true that the RIAA mass-litigation model isn't even original, but rather harkens back to DirectTV?
Because it is much easier to hide data on this by slipping it into the middle of your CD/DVD collection than it is to hide a hard drive. Which, unless your significant other is into pr0n as much as you are, is probably a good thing.
I'd say signing me up for a dating service posthumuously would be pointless, except that it might actually garner a lot of interest from goth girls and Twilight fans...
"To my darling wife... You haven't thought about me today at all, have you? Already hard at work on you next husband, I see? It's ok, you'll be joining me here soon enough, you heartless bitch"!
All that harassing and threatening email you wanted to send when you were alive, but were afraid of getting arrested? Simply arrange to have it all since once you are dead! Hell, you can even threaten the POTUS with complete impunity, 'cause you're DEAD! Complete with a tag line of "Ha-ha, try retaliating against me NOW, assholes!" Great idea! Now, I just need to cross my fingers and hope that everybody on my "enemies list" outlives me...
Too bad DVD Jon didn't think of doing posthumuous publication, although granted the adoring hordes of anti-encryption groupies aren't much use to you after you've kicked the bit-bucket and gone on to that great programming gig in the sky.
IBM: Well, the game is afoot. I'll take anal bum cover for 7,000.
Alex Trebek: That's An album cover, not anal bum cover.
IBM: I can read, Trebek. That says Anal bum cover. I've spent five years of my life trying to invent an anal bum cover, failing to do so is my greatest regret
The worst is yet to come. Being fingerprinted by incompetents, and the "interview" in which you have to prove you actually cohabitate and that your marriage has been consumated to somebody that assumes from the onset that you are lying. Questions like "Where is the trash can in your bathroom located?" One of my friends claims she was asked point blank: "Did you pay this man to marry you?". We didn't have any problems with proving we weren't in a sham marriages at the interview, but that is only because I walked in and said "Hi, I'm so-and-so, this is my wife, and this is my daughter. Here is my daughter's birth certificate, listing both of us as the parents. Any questions?"
So they are saying that the modern definition of "cloud computing" involves putting all you data in one place, so that it can be managed at a single point by dedicated IT professionals? Isn't that exactly what they used to call "mainframe computing"? Will we all be using 3270 terminals to access the cloud?
What about incentivizing behavior that shortens your life expectancy, like smoking, drinking, and drug use, rather then disincentivizing these behaviors like we do now? Allowing a 1-for-1 replacement rate still results in population growth, simply because people are living longer. I do agree with the original post in the sense that if you subsidize breeders, you will get more offspring. I'm just not convinced that that is a societal good.
a) Your post is completely offtopic b) Give the government the power to reward some industries and punish others through the tax code, and you make it much more lucerative to bribe government officials for favorable treatment than to spend your money competing in a free market. c) A tax deduction for kids is a government subsidy (pronounced "welfare") for breeders. A tax deduction for mortgage interest is a government subsidy to home owners and the real estate industry. The first is blatant discrimination against those that do not or cannot have kids. The second is blatant discrimination against those that cannot afford home ownership -- this subsidy to the rich is the antithesis of "progressive taxation".
If we hadn't been subsidizing children for the past 30 years, we wouldn't have so many more workers than jobs now (the "unemployment rate" actually measures the difference between the birth/immigration rate and the job creation rate). If we hadn't been subsidizing mortgage interest, there wouldn't have been as big a housing bubble, therefore not as big a slump.
Well yes, that is correct. But that is just because a) I own my own house, and haven't lived in my mom's basement for over 30 years now, and b) my wife has voiced strong objections to my bringing other women home.
I don't think it matters either way. What bothers me is that 'merkins can't fathom the notion that other countries might have different conventions for numbers, dates, or even people's names. Hence their insistence on changing my wife's birthday from April 7 to July 4 when she came to the states, 'cause they couldn't understand that the 7/4/1971 on her passport was not in month/day/year format. Gee, you'd think at least immigration officials would have seen a few foreign documents before, wouldn't you?
Anyway, why not just call it $349 USD and avoid the issue entirely?
Do you have any idea how many chicks I've lured back to my mom's basement with the line, "Hey baby, wanna see my Pleo?" I assure you, $200 is a small price to pay for a bad-ass chick magnet like this robotic dinosaur!
In the realm of subatomic physics, if you create a molecule that nobody else has ever seen before, than this is considered conclusive evidence that your penis is much bigger than that of all the other scientists. Hence the implication is that these scientists will score much more with all those nubile, hot young physics groupies. "Oh baby, show me your Bose-Einstein Condensate!"
What?!? Are you saying downloading files isn't theft? The RIAA keeps using terms like "illegal uploading and downloading", so uploading and downloading must be exactly the same! I'm sure an honorable institution like the RIAA wouldn't try to deliberately mislead people to accomplish the goals! After all, as lawyers with a firm understanding of legal ethics, I am certain they understand the concept that the end does not justify any means.
Unfortunately, given the number of people who believe that we invaded Iraq due to their responsibility for 9/11, I would suggest that many people are stupid enough to believe anything they are told. Despite fear of STDs, people are having more sex than ever, and despite fear of the RIAA, the bittorrent traffic shows no signs of subsiding.
This is a civil, not criminal matter. Downloading a file containing copyrighted material is not the same as murder. Also, if the network is using DHCP and recording MAC addresses associated with each DHCP lease, and anybody on the network could have used that address, how exactly are they going to prove that it was you? Hint: If you are on Ethernet, use Ethereal to capture all traffic on a LAN segment, then set your MAC address to one of those captured and then use a different LAN segment. Voila -- the RIAA sues someone else for your nefarious deeds! Extra points if you can figure out the MAC address of a tenured Law Professor! All I'm sayin' is that hardware addresses aren't like fingerprints, DNA, license plates or phone numbers. They are more like "HELLO, My Name is ____" stickers. You can fill them in with whatever name you want, which makes them very unreliable in terms of associating you with any particular use of the network.
Slashdot Mirror
...prices increases... and rake in even more.
Are you unfamiliar with the concept of elasticity of demand? If they raise the price high enough, then it becomes feasible for me to start a private club wherein 20 people contribute to the purchase of a CD and we all get a backup copy. The RIAA litigation model can do nothing against this form of sharing, and if everyone did it, then net profits would go down, not up. Do you seriously expect that if the RIAA raised the minimum price of a CD to $100, that they would make MORE money? I believe they are already well past the optimum price point for their product, and that _lowering_ the price to under $10 would in fact improve their net income. How many songs has Apple sold at this (lower) price point?
One Swiss complainant was quoted as saying, "It is frustrating... how are we going to keep our fair Swiss maidens satisfied once they see the enormous schlongs on these German beastie-men and start comparing them to our tiny swiss sausages?"
From Wikipedia: "The Ninth Circuit recently held that Noerr-Pennington also protects against RICO Act claims when a defendant has sent thousands of demand letters threatening suit. Sosa v. DirectTV, Inc., 437 F.3d 923, 935 (9th Cir. 2006)" Yep, that sounds like the RIAA alright! It also makes sense that the plaintiff would invoke RICO against the RIAA. But I still don't see how this justifies sealing the file. The whole point of a class-action is to give everyone who has been harmed the option of joining in. That's just a little difficult to do when the file is sealed! Ray, is it true that the RIAA mass-litigation model isn't even original, but rather harkens back to DirectTV?
Wait... I'm a foreign, gay, redneck, pedophile... which box should I check???
Wait a minute... that link just redirects to the Anna Nicole Smith bio page!
Because it is much easier to hide data on this by slipping it into the middle of your CD/DVD collection than it is to hide a hard drive. Which, unless your significant other is into pr0n as much as you are, is probably a good thing.
I'd say signing me up for a dating service posthumuously would be pointless, except that it might actually garner a lot of interest from goth girls and Twilight fans...
What's wrong with a little daily reminder?
"To my darling wife... You haven't thought about me today at all, have you? Already hard at work on you next husband, I see? It's ok, you'll be joining me here soon enough, you heartless bitch"!
All that harassing and threatening email you wanted to send when you were alive, but were afraid of getting arrested? Simply arrange to have it all since once you are dead! Hell, you can even threaten the POTUS with complete impunity, 'cause you're DEAD! Complete with a tag line of "Ha-ha, try retaliating against me NOW, assholes!" Great idea! Now, I just need to cross my fingers and hope that everybody on my "enemies list" outlives me...
Too bad DVD Jon didn't think of doing posthumuous publication, although granted the adoring hordes of anti-encryption groupies aren't much use to you after you've kicked the bit-bucket and gone on to that great programming gig in the sky.
IBM: Well, the game is afoot. I'll take anal bum cover for 7,000.
Alex Trebek: That's An album cover, not anal bum cover.
IBM: I can read, Trebek. That says Anal bum cover. I've spent five years of my life trying to invent an anal bum cover, failing to do so is my greatest regret
The worst is yet to come. Being fingerprinted by incompetents, and the "interview" in which you have to prove you actually cohabitate and that your marriage has been consumated to somebody that assumes from the onset that you are lying. Questions like "Where is the trash can in your bathroom located?" One of my friends claims she was asked point blank: "Did you pay this man to marry you?". We didn't have any problems with proving we weren't in a sham marriages at the interview, but that is only because I walked in and said "Hi, I'm so-and-so, this is my wife, and this is my daughter. Here is my daughter's birth certificate, listing both of us as the parents. Any questions?"
The music industry is littered with high-profile examples of people who ended up with permanently damaged psyches
I can only think of one: Syd Barrett
So they are saying that the modern definition of "cloud computing" involves putting all you data in one place, so that it can be managed at a single point by dedicated IT professionals? Isn't that exactly what they used to call "mainframe computing"? Will we all be using 3270 terminals to access the cloud?
This should bee a positive step for farmers everywhere who depend on these critters for pollination of their crops. I'm buzzing with joy!
What about incentivizing behavior that shortens your life expectancy, like smoking, drinking, and drug use, rather then disincentivizing these behaviors like we do now? Allowing a 1-for-1 replacement rate still results in population growth, simply because people are living longer. I do agree with the original post in the sense that if you subsidize breeders, you will get more offspring. I'm just not convinced that that is a societal good.
Aren't leaks usually accompanied by rats leaving a sinking ship? If that is the case, then these leaks must have started a long time ago...
a) Your post is completely offtopic b) Give the government the power to reward some industries and punish others through the tax code, and you make it much more lucerative to bribe government officials for favorable treatment than to spend your money competing in a free market. c) A tax deduction for kids is a government subsidy (pronounced "welfare") for breeders. A tax deduction for mortgage interest is a government subsidy to home owners and the real estate industry. The first is blatant discrimination against those that do not or cannot have kids. The second is blatant discrimination against those that cannot afford home ownership -- this subsidy to the rich is the antithesis of "progressive taxation".
If we hadn't been subsidizing children for the past 30 years, we wouldn't have so many more workers than jobs now (the "unemployment rate" actually measures the difference between the birth/immigration rate and the job creation rate). If we hadn't been subsidizing mortgage interest, there wouldn't have been as big a housing bubble, therefore not as big a slump.
Sun Employees: What is our status when Oracle takes over?
Oracle President: See Figure 1
My guess.... zero
Well yes, that is correct. But that is just because a) I own my own house, and haven't lived in my mom's basement for over 30 years now, and b) my wife has voiced strong objections to my bringing other women home.
I don't think it matters either way. What bothers me is that 'merkins can't fathom the notion that other countries might have different conventions for numbers, dates, or even people's names. Hence their insistence on changing my wife's birthday from April 7 to July 4 when she came to the states, 'cause they couldn't understand that the 7/4/1971 on her passport was not in month/day/year format. Gee, you'd think at least immigration officials would have seen a few foreign documents before, wouldn't you?
Anyway, why not just call it $349 USD and avoid the issue entirely?
Yeah, but the first time, it was their own fault.
Do you have any idea how many chicks I've lured back to my mom's basement with the line, "Hey baby, wanna see my Pleo?" I assure you, $200 is a small price to pay for a bad-ass chick magnet like this robotic dinosaur!
In the realm of subatomic physics, if you create a molecule that nobody else has ever seen before, than this is considered conclusive evidence that your penis is much bigger than that of all the other scientists. Hence the implication is that these scientists will score much more with all those nubile, hot young physics groupies. "Oh baby, show me your Bose-Einstein Condensate!"
What?!? Are you saying downloading files isn't theft? The RIAA keeps using terms like "illegal uploading and downloading", so uploading and downloading must be exactly the same! I'm sure an honorable institution like the RIAA wouldn't try to deliberately mislead people to accomplish the goals! After all, as lawyers with a firm understanding of legal ethics, I am certain they understand the concept that the end does not justify any means.
Unfortunately, given the number of people who believe that we invaded Iraq due to their responsibility for 9/11, I would suggest that many people are stupid enough to believe anything they are told. Despite fear of STDs, people are having more sex than ever, and despite fear of the RIAA, the bittorrent traffic shows no signs of subsiding.
This is a civil, not criminal matter. Downloading a file containing copyrighted material is not the same as murder. Also, if the network is using DHCP and recording MAC addresses associated with each DHCP lease, and anybody on the network could have used that address, how exactly are they going to prove that it was you? Hint: If you are on Ethernet, use Ethereal to capture all traffic on a LAN segment, then set your MAC address to one of those captured and then use a different LAN segment. Voila -- the RIAA sues someone else for your nefarious deeds! Extra points if you can figure out the MAC address of a tenured Law Professor! All I'm sayin' is that hardware addresses aren't like fingerprints, DNA, license plates or phone numbers. They are more like "HELLO, My Name is ____" stickers. You can fill them in with whatever name you want, which makes them very unreliable in terms of associating you with any particular use of the network.